Brittany Chung receives national award for Sustained Dialogue

Brittany Moseley | Oct. 29, 2015

Brittany Chung, a senior chemistry major, was recently honored by the Sustained Dialogue Institute at its second annual National Dialogue Awards, held Oct. 9 in Washington, D.C. Chung, the only student recipient of the award, was one of five honorees, which also included Senator George Mitchell, a key architect of several peace agreements in the Middle East and Northern Ireland; Evolve Health, an Arlington, Virginia-based company recognized for its diversity and inclusion in the workplace; Ohio State University alumna Taylor Sawyer and University of Alabama faculty member Lane McLelland, who are both part of the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network.

The mission of Sustained Dialogue is to engage people in dialogue in order to identify social issues affecting them and then develop a plan to resolve the root cause of the problem. Chung’s involvement with Sustained Dialogue at CWRU began her freshman year. "I signed up for a leadership conference and ended up following through by helping to bring the Sustained Dialogue Campus Network to CWRU and [serving] as a group moderator for one of the first undergraduate dialogue groups,” she explained.

Chung was recognized by the Sustained Dialogue Institute for her work in fostering dialogue about issues on campus and implementing solutions. She helped start the International and Multicultural Exchange and the Undergraduate Diversity Collaborative. Chung said her proudest achievement in regards to Sustained Dialogue at CWRU was seeing the suggestions of the spring 2014 dialogue groups put into action.

"The dialogue groups had recommended that students, staff, and faculty receive diversity training so we can start to create an environment where all members feel valued. When Diversity 360 was rolled out this fall, I was extremely happy and proud of the changes that Sustained Dialogue helped to bring to our campus."

After she graduates in the spring, Chung plans to attend law school and would like to pursue a career in health law or international law. She said Sustained Dialogue is a lifelong tool that she will continue to use to help improve her community. "The biggest takeaway has been to find the root cause of an issue," Chung said. "I've found that the problems we see are the branches of the main issue, so I've learned that I should keep asking ‘why’ in order to better understand what's going on."